Experimental investigation on the fire resistance of cast-in-situ hollow core concrete slabs constructed using filler boxes and an assembly box system

Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities. Grant Number: 2018QNB10 Innovative Research Team in University of Ministry of Education of China. Grant Number: IRT13075; JiangSu Collaborative Innovation Center for Building Energy Saving and Construction Technology. Grant Number: SJXTQ1614; National Natural Science Foundation of China. Grant Numbers: 51308328, 51408594; Ministry of Education of China

The J-value and its role in evaluating investments in fire safety schemes

Fire safety engineers endeavour to ensure that a design achieves an adequate level of fire safety. For uncommon buildings, adequate safety cannot be based on precedent and an explicit evaluation of the adequacy of proposed safety features may be required. Commonly, this requires demonstration that the residual risk associated with the design is as low as is reasonably practicable. In those situations, a measure for a safety scheme’s benefit relative to its cost is required, as more efficient safety schemes should be preferred over less efficient ones to maximize the number of lives saved under societal resource constraints. To this end, the J-value has been introduced in other engineering fields as a decision support indicator for assessing the efficacy of safety features. The J-value has been derived from societal welfare considerations (the Life Quality Index) and is adopted in the current paper for applications in fire safety engineering. It is demonstrated herein how the J-value can inform decisions on fire safety, and how it can provide a basis for assessing whether or not a proposed fire safety scheme should be implemented. Future work will focus on its implementation as a tool for assessing the benefit of real life fire safety scheme implementations, such as sprinkler installations

A systematic review of the literature on digital transformation: insights and implications for strategy and organizational change

In this article we provide a systematic review of the extensive yet diverse and fragmented literature on digital transformation (DT), with the goal of clarifying boundary conditions to investigate the phenomenon from the perspective of organizational change. On the basis of 279 articles, we provide a multi-dimensional framework synthesizing what is known about DT and discern two important thematical patterns: DT is moving firms to malleable organizational designs that enable continuous adaptation, and this move is embedded in and driven by digital business ecosystems. From these two patterns, we derive four perspectives on the phenomenon of DT: technology impact, compartmentalized adaptation, systemic shift and holistic co-evolution. Linking our findings and interpretations to existing work, we find that the nature of DT is only partially covered by conventional frameworks on organizational change. On the basis of this analysis, we derive a research agenda and provide managerial implications for strategy and organizational change.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Should I Stay or Should I Go? The Role of Actuarial Reduction Rates in Individual Retirement Planning in Germany

This paper provides a two-part empirical analysis on how actuarial reduction rates for early retirement affect current pension payments in Germany and to what extent the existence and the magnitude of these reduction rates influence people s retirement planning. First, by evaluating a large dataset of administrative records it becomes evident that early retirement shows a high prevalence at the extensive and at the intensive margin, in particular for women and those with a medium income. Second, a special question in the 2011 SAVE survey is exploited where respondents are offered a hypothetical deal for early retirement if in turn they were willing to accept an actuarial reduction on their pension. It becomes evident that the maximum reduction rate people would be willing to accept is widely dispersed and on average approximately double the current legal rate. Furthermore, respondents seem to make consistent choices and high endowment of financial assets plus additional old age provision, high subjective life expectancy, bad health as well as being a man are positively correlated with the actuarial reduction rate the respondents would accept at most. Given that policymakers aim to raise the average retirement age, the results emphasize the need for a simultaneous increase of not only the statutory retirement age but the minimum early retirement age as well. This becomes necessary since actuarial reduction rates cannot be expected to change the retirement behavior of workers with a strong preference for early retirement or those who rely on social benefits

Towards a practical probabilistic post-fire assessment for concrete slabs

When a concrete structure has been exposed to fire, a decision has to be made whether the structure should be demolished, can be repaired, or may be used in its current state. However, many uncertainties are associated with both the fire duration and the effect of elevated temperatures on the mechanical properties of the materials. Consequently, the maximum allowable load after fire exposure should be assessed based on reliability considerations. As full-probabilistic calculations are too complex and time-consuming for normal use by practitioners, a reliability-based assessment tool has been developed which determines the maximum allowable imposed load after fire

A Structural Model for Early Exit of Older Men in Belgium

In this paper we propose a structural model of the retirement decision for older workers in Belgium. We model the exit paths available through the various available schemes. Our framework allows exploiting all information on possible exit paths and also better identifying preferences and constraints. Results based upon Belgian microsimulation data from 2001 for private sector workers fits rather well observed behavior. Simulations of hypothetical reforms illustrate the potential effects of changing social security rules